forums.naturalpoint.com

Hi,

TrackIR3 was delivered to me today. I logged it as admin, installed it, tried it as admin and there was no problem.

Then I logged in using my normal login account - which is not administrator. Under my normal account when I am starting the TrackIR controlling app I am always getting two error messages saying: "Registry Key Error" before the TrackIR main software window is displayed. I click both error messages off and from that point TrackIR seems to be continuing normally.

I think this little thing should be easy to fix - I presume it just slipped through your testing procedure. Please don't tell me that I am supposed to log in as administrator - that would quite increase security risks (of somebody hacking my computer, adware, viruses and so on) - using Windows gives me enough concerns - I do not need more of them.

Thanks,
Roman

RomanG,

Depending on how you have your permissions set for the user account that you use, you can install under your user account, however we may have to look at what permissions your account has.
If you have any problems we will be able to change the permission values on certain keys, this will all depend again on your user account.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows XP and its security system .....or not.

Try the above and let me know how you get on and we can go from there.

[ July 15, 2004, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Wayne ]

Wayne,

Thanks for your answer, I am using Windows 2000 Server, sorry for not mentioning that before.

My user account has default Window's "User Group" priviledges to access registry.

The problem with TrackIR actually seems to me TrackIR design issue, not a Windows Security issue. Well, unless I am wrong. What exactly is it here you are blaming Windows for ? What registry key is TrackIR software trying to access and why it display's error messages if the errors are not critical (I presume since TrackIR appears to be functioning normally once I click error message boxes off) ?

I ran registry monitoring tool (under admin account - I can't run it under my regular account since the regmon tool needs system hookup priviledges). On the regmon log I see two registry write operations made by naturalpoint.exe for whose my default user account has certainly not access for:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\NaturalPoint

Thanks,
Roman

RomanG,

Thank you for pointing out that you have Windows 2000 Server that does change a number of thoughts that I have.

First to cover the question that you have asked "What exactly is it here you are blaming Windows for ?" I didnt think I was, I mearly indicated my opinion of Windows Xp security.

Secondly "The problem with TrackIR actually seems to me TrackIR design issue" I am not aware of this.

The two keys that you have listed I will take a look at. I can understand the second one, but I dont understand the first key that you listed, I will need to look at this.

Do you have the Run at Startup box checked?

Wyane,

Thanks for at least looking at this issue.

To answer your question: No - I don't have "Run on Startup" checked.

For Your Information, the value which is NaturalPoint.exe writing to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\NaturalPoint registry value is empty string. This I would call a small bug. I don't understand what is point of writing anything to this registry value if I don't have the "Run on Startup" checked.

Regarding the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed key - for your information - whenever I start any program on my box I see all programs writing to that registry value on startup - so I don't think this registry access is initiated by NaturalPoint - it might be called by system as part of some system library initialization (?). I don't think any of the "Registry Key Error" message is related to this registry value because I don't see similar error messages when I start other programs.

What I would call a (small) design issue (you might call it opinion or something else) is that NaturalPoint is using HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ registry key for starting itself when user logs in. Since this will affect all computer users AND by default Windows users do not have write access to this key - I would use ___HKCU___\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ for that, or create appropriate LNK file in the "Documents And Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" folder (not sure however whether this exists on XP). The HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ key I would use only if user has write access there and I would have additional check box for this called "Run on Startup for all users" (or something) and would display it only if the user has write access to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\.

BTW, otherwise the TrackIR performs very nicely - I am quite impressed - my congratulations to that ...

Thanks,
Roman

quote:Originally posted by RomanG:
For Your Information, the value which is NaturalPoint.exe writing to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\NaturalPoint registry value is empty string. This I would call a small bug. I don't understand what is point of writing anything to this registry value if I don't have the "Run on Startup" checked.
When Run at Startup is un-checked it (over)writes a null value to the run at startup registry entry, as opposed to writing the path to the executable. This ensures that the run at startup registry entry always reflects the actual state of the UI selection, regardless of external changes to the registry.

quote:
I would use ___HKCU___\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\ for that, or create appropriate LNK file in the "Documents And Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" folder (not sure however whether this exists on XP).
You make a good point. This will be added to the feature request list for evaluation.

We appreciate your input on our product.

[ July 20, 2004, 05:49 PM: Message edited by: Birch Zimmer ]